MLB 2K12's $1,000,000 Challenge Sees Early Success

Share.

Over 400,000 attempts in first eight days.

By Andrew Goldfarb

Major League Baseball 2K12's Perfect Game Challenge is off to a great start. The event saw major changes this year, transforming from a race to see who could pitch the first perfect game into a massive competition that will culminate in a tournament in New York City next month. We spoke with 2K Sports head of marketing Jason Argent about the Perfect Game Challenge's early success.

"The goal this year was to build it and open it up to a bigger number of people and make it more exciting over a longer period of time," Argent told IGN in an interview this afternoon. "The last couple years, someone pitched a perfect game pretty shortly after we launched and it was over, so I think mission accomplished. This thing is so exciting and there's so many people going after it. Over 400,000 attempts at it alone, which is kind of mind-blowing numbers."

2K revealed that of the 400,000 attempts thus far, 275 perfect games have been verified. Unlike previous years, which required players to submit videos of their attempts, games are now verified and submitted directly through MLB 2K12's in-game Perfect Game Challenge mode. A leaderboard of the highest scores is available on 2K's official site. When the challenge ends next month, the top eight players will be brought to New York to compete for the $1,000,000 prize.

"It's clear from the feedback we're getting and the amount of traffic and community and questions and things like that, it's night and day compared to years past. The actual verified perfect games we got in years past were under 100 at the end of the entire tournament, and as of today we're over 275 verified perfect games. You can see that it's a huge multiple of what's happened in the past, which is exactly what we were hoping for."

Argent notes that the most exciting aspect of the tournament's new form is the real-time nature of the competition. "If you're up on that leaderboard in second position and you go back on the next day and you've slipped to eighth, you know you have some work to do to stay up there. It's that level of excitement and engagement that I think we really hit it on the head with."

Argent said that the participation level in the tournament has remained consistent thus far and that 2K expects the high rate of attempts to continue. "We expected maybe after the first week or so to sort of start seeing a drop off. We have not. If that same level continues throughout the end of April, we could be well over a million attempts and over 500 or 1,000 verified perfect games."

"Of course, it doesn't matter when it's only the top eight that have 'done it,'" Argent noted, "but it's working as it was designed: to reward the best perfect game. At the end of this thing, we're going to have one hell of a gamer."

MLB 2K12's Perfect Game Challenge will run until April 30th, at which point the leaderboards will lock-in. The top eight players will participate in a tournament in New York City on May 9th and 10th and the million dollar winner will be chosen. For more info on the tournament, check out the official rules, and keep checking back to IGN to find out the final results.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN's associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he's been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.